My thinking based on what was mentioned, Why are you skidding so much? generally speaking if your having to brake that involves skidding your doing something wrong! You should not need to skid for any reason, except for an emergency stop, and if your having emergency breaking events you should consider taking a good hard look as to how your riding. Not trying to be an *** here, but,maybe you should change you riding habits. I have ABS and want it to work. If it is not working, I would ground that bike until it was fixed. JMHO of course I use the 4 second rule. If the car your following is less than four seconds ahead of you, you too close. You should not be skidding in ANY event! Something is wrong if that is the case. JMTCW.

 

The quickest way to stop a motorcycle with ABS is to use the brakes so they stop the bike but don't engage ABS. ABS is not a good reason to forget about threshold braking practice. When it comes to stopping a motorcycle in a short distance; the FAILURE is rarely the bike. Speed in mph x 1.5 (roughly) is the number of feet per second the vehicle is traveling.

35 mph equals 52.5 feet every second
45 mph equals 67.5 feet every second

Something to keep in mind when traveling on roads with intersections.

 

OP, curious. Did you replace your brake lines or anything like that, that you had to bleed the brakes? There is a warning in the operator's manual for my 2014 48 with ABS that you need to have the dealership bleed the ABS brake system (with their machine) or there could be a possible failure of the ABS system (no mention about a ABS fault light would come on, so you wouldn't know until you used it)....

 

Appreciate all the advice on braking. Bottom line was that just because the ABS cycles on and off it doesn't mean it actually works.

Thanks

Mike

 

I have to apologize for my last post. I just re read it, and thought it was way harsh. I get that way sometimes. Maybe I have asburgers syndrome. Maybe I had been drinking.. Who knows. But I didn't mean it to sound so bad. Sorry.

 

Ha!
I've had my ABS kick in about 4 or 5 times since I've owned the bike.
The ABS is for panic stops to prevent you from going into a skid, by doing this the ABS shortens the stopping distance.

You weren't being to harsh, every time I've used the ABS it was because I was going to fast for the conditions (mostly trying to beat the red).
So yup, mostly the rider's fault.

 

I wouldn't hammer yourself so much.
I didn't write down what I thought, but what I thought was what you wrote down.

Of course the OP's riding style really isn't what the thread is about but I don't have ABS so I wasn't going to comment.
However I'm not sure I've locked up my brakes since 1978 when I went down on wet pavement primarily due to my lack of riding/braking ability.

But if I had ABS and it was faulty I certainly wouldn't ride it until I got it fixed unless I had too.

 

ABS is designed to not lock your wheels during braking. It DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU STOP IN SHORTER DISTANCES.

Just because your ABS module is inoperable, that doesn't mean that your brakes are inop. It just means you have "regular/standard" brakes. Save the $700 and ride your bike.

The more electronics motorcycles get, the more issues motorcyclists will have with those systems...

Still a good opportunity to practice threshold braking...